pawsinsand Posted February 7, 2011 Share Posted February 7, 2011 Hello, I'm in the process of completing the CASPA application and am really unsure about where to put my experience as a veterinary technician: under patient contact experience, other health care experience, or other work experience? What I do definitely involves patient care and much more, but since I'm not sure if the human health care community considers veterinary care as "health care" I don't really know where to put this? The work experience field isn't require, but I don't feel like I should leave it blank. For those of you who don't know, as a licensed vet tech I pretty much do what a human nurse would do, only with animals, and am also responsible for administering anesthesia, radiology, histology, cytology, catheter placement, blood draw, etc. I do believe my skills and experience will benefit as I transition into the human medical field, just not sure how the PA program will view this experience? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ASteadman07 Posted February 7, 2011 Share Posted February 7, 2011 Yes, I worked as a vet tech and receptionist for 10 years and they did view it as medical experience. However, be prepared to answer the interview question of why human medicine instead of veterinary medicine =) Came up in ALL of my interviews! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pawsinsand Posted February 7, 2011 Author Share Posted February 7, 2011 Thanks a bunch. So did you put your veterinary experience under patient care on your app or split it up (1/2 patient care/1/2 other health care to account for the labwork, etc.)? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ASteadman07 Posted February 7, 2011 Share Posted February 7, 2011 I had placed it all under other health care experience. For patient exp I had written my time as a pharmacy tech. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marilynpac Posted February 7, 2011 Share Posted February 7, 2011 Back up a little bit here...make sure you call the school(s) that you plan to attend and ask them if they consider it experience, then explain exactly what you do in your PS. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pawsinsand Posted February 8, 2011 Author Share Posted February 8, 2011 Thanks, I will contact them. I guess even though I am licensed by the Department of Health some may not consider it "health care" because my patients aren't human. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Firemedic13 Posted February 8, 2011 Share Posted February 8, 2011 I know for a fact that many schools will not accept this. And I don't blame them. While the biology isn't much different, the fact is that working with humans involves a very different psychology that you need to deal with. Also, why not just go to veterinary school? I seriously considered doing that at one point, and there is nothing wrong with that profession. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ASteadman07 Posted February 8, 2011 Share Posted February 8, 2011 I would just research it. Two of the schools I interviewed at liked the fact that it brought a different prespective to their class. It is considered health care experience, but like everyone mentioned just make sure that the schools accept it. I had a similar post last year around this time. Also, it is nice to have human patient experience. I do see that you just did not know what to place your veterinary experience under so I am assuming you have other experience as well. It honestly depends on what your personal statement says about you and how you answer your interview questions. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marilynpac Posted February 8, 2011 Share Posted February 8, 2011 You're right ASteadman, some schools may consider it hce but one should also find out if it is high quality hce. If not the gpa has to be very high >3.7. Still a phone call is whats in order here and be sure include that licensing was required in order to do the job... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CJKitty Posted February 8, 2011 Share Posted February 8, 2011 I only worked as a kennel tech and not a fully certified vet tech for a few years, and I personally didn't bother listing those hours on my CASPA. What I did do was take a little time in my personal statement to explain: a. Why I made the switch to human medicine (PREPARE for this question, it WILL come up often!) b. How my veterinary experience remotely prepared me for the career change and to be a successful PA. In particular, I discussed how I gained compassion and problem-solving skills with a "patient" population that cannot express what's wrong with them. This can carry over into both pediatrics and geriatric (think dementia, Alzheimer's) medicine. Reading body language, being exceedingly patient when your actions are not always seen as being "helpful" to the patient, etc. From what I hear, the PS is now longer this year, so I'd say you have no excuse NOT to address it in yours. ;) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DizzyJ Posted February 10, 2011 Share Posted February 10, 2011 I also listed my 5 years of vet experience in HCE. I wanted to apply to 3 schools, but only 2 would accept my vet experience as HCE. I checked with them ahead of time so I wouldn't waste my time applying. As others have said, prepared with the "why aren't you going to vet school?" question. I would also stress on all of the different aspects of medicine you get hands on experience in while being a vet tech. In veterinary medicine I was able to gain experience in a variety of roles that are pretty much the same as in human medicine: scrub tech, sterile processor, pharm tech, first assist, rad tech, lab tech, phlebo, even anesthesiology. Some people don't realize how much the medicine is all the same. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Allegro Posted February 10, 2011 Share Posted February 10, 2011 As far as the CASPA app is concerned, they really don't care where you list it as long as you do include it somewhere. What you need to determine is if the time you spent as a vet tech counts towards any HCE pre-reqs your program may have, and the only ones who can answer that are the programs themselves. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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